Age shall not wither their financial clout

What are the telltale signs of old age? False teeth, a granny flat, elasticated waists and beige anoraks - or a healthy physique, independence, plenty of money and a job? Economists and politicians have spent a lot of time worrying about the ageing population and how fewer and fewer workers will support more and more dependent pensioners. But a report entitled The New Old Age by HSBC and the Oxford Institute of Ageing, based on a survey of 21 countries, shows that older people are not a useless drain on society: quite the opposite. Those in their sixties and seventies are enormous contributors to local communities and to the economy as a whole. In the UK, the 60-79 age group adds £59bn of value a year through tax payments, volunteer work and support to their families. Most give more practical and financial care to relatives and friends than they receive, and they contribute £4.2bn a year in voluntary work.

A large number still have jobs - 3.2 million over-sixties are in employment in the UK - and globally, more than 10 per cent of septuagenarians still work. Nearly half of those in their forties and fifties expect to work as long as possible, in most cases because they want to. In the business world, we will see more evergreens such as the octogenarian Sumner Redstone at US media giant Viacom, 90-year-old Las Vegas dealmaker Kirk Kerkorian and British players like John Duffield, who is floating his fund management business on the stock market at a fresh-faced 67.

In the UK, age discrimination legislation means that employers will no longer be able to target mature staff for redundancies and will have to consider applications from veteran candidates on an equal basis with the young.

The over-forties, who bought their first homes before the mid-Nineties, have benefited from a huge transfer of wealth in Britain from the young to their elders, triggered by rising house prices. First-time buyers cannot afford a mortgage of their own, but are more likely to live in a buy-to-let owned by an oldster. Young people in second-home hotspots are priced out of the market by affluent sixtysomethings and even those in line for an inheritance may have to wait until they are 60 for it to arrive. The likelihood of clashes between the generations will increase as the mature continue to gain wealth and commandeer a bigger slice of public spending on healthcare while younger generations become more indebted.

An ageing population poses other serious problems. Not all pensioners are prosperous, and not everyone shares the desire or ability to go on working, particularly people in physically demanding jobs. Seventy may be the new 50, as HSBC claims, but many in the over-80 age group need care; facilities are expensive and local authority resources are already overstretched. Social trends, including high divorce rates and increasing numbers of women without children, will pose new challenges as fewer elderly people may be able to rely on family support. Tomorrow's retirees are also likely to be much poorer than today's unless they work in the public sector and have a state-backed retirement fund, because of the wholesale retreat from final salary company pensions.

But a longer-living population is also an economic opportunity, provided that companies and society as a whole recognise how much older people have to offer and to spend. Private equity is bang on trend, investing in retirement homes and businesses like Saga, which may be heading for a £2.5bn stock market float. My tip: invest in sectors such as healthcare, cosmetics, leisure, travel and wealth management, which will attract the silver pound. Businesses need to grasp that 60 can still be sexy.